So last weekend I was bored on a Sunday morning and my wife was doom-scrolling Instagram on her phone next to me, so I sent her a Wordle challenge link using her own name as the secret word and she had no idea what I have planned. So I went to wordleunlimited.dev on my phone, switched to the Unlimited mode, and used the Challenge a Friend feature to create the link in less than a minute. It turned out to be even more fun than I thought, and this is now our strange family tradition.

Why I used her name as the secret word

Her name is 5 letters long which is the classic Wordle length, and any personal word adds something extra to the challenge due to the surprise effect. In the majority of online challenge games, players either choose the word from the dictionary or are forced to use common words. Wordle Unlimited lets you pick any word from the dictionary with the length between 4 and 7 letters, including names. So I just entered her name in the "Your word" field, my own name in the optional "Your name" field and didn't care about the time limit since I wanted her to enjoy herself thinking.

Creating the link was extremely easy

It's such a minimalistic form that I was actually expecting some additional steps, but no, it's literally fill in your word in the form, click Create challenge link button. The link was created instantly, I pressed copy button and the link was pasted in our WhatsApp chat saying "guess this lol". She opened the link on her phone and the word was loaded without any additional installations or sign-in on her side, and it's this feature that makes the whole challenge feature sharable in the real world without pestering another player.

The reaction was priceless

At first, she started guessing random words, the green tiles started appearing gradually as she was getting closer to the solution, and after about 4 attempts she finally guessed her own name and texted back "are you serious right now". She pressed the Wordle Unlimited share state button after she solved the puzzle, and the result shows that she guessed the word in 4 attempts which she will not let me forget. The whole exchange took about 10 minutes and was definitely the best mobile interaction we've had that week.

Other custom words I tried since

This feature becomes weirdly addictive once discovered, here is the list of the personal words I tried to challenge her to guess over the next few days:

• Her favorite coffee order (5 letters).
• Our cat's name (4 letters).
• The street we got married on (7 letters).
• Inside joke word from our wedding (6 letters).
• Mother-in-law's nickname (5 letters).

Every single one of those received an immediate response, and there is an optional time limit if you want to add some pressure, although I left it set to None because the surprise is the key, not the speed.

Final thoughts

If your relationship has already reached the point where you both just stare at your phones in the same room, the Challenge a Friend feature of Wordle Unlimited at wordleunlimited.dev is a definite little cheat code to bring some fun into your routine again. No installation needed, no account needed from both sides, and the link does everything. Try this once with a custom word that will mean something for the person you are challenging, and tell me it doesn't receive a reply faster than your last 5 voice messages.